Criticism of Netflix
[6] According to the official rules of the Academy, a film only needs to be screened in the city of Los Angeles for seven days, with a minimum of three public showings per-day, to qualify for an Oscar nomination.
[11] Due to its contravention of the standard three-month windows used by all major distributors, national cinema chains have refused to carry Netflix's theatrical releases.
Netflix defended its distribution model, arguing that it was devoted to "[providing] access for people who can't always afford, or live in towns without, theaters.
Organizers stated that the restriction was due to a policy enforced by the facility's owner and operator, Cineplex Entertainment, requiring adherence to three-month theatrical windows.
[20] Netflix quickly restored the original scene after hearing the issue from co-writer Bob Gale, mentioning that it was apparently "a foreign version which he or Robert Zemeckis didn't even know existed, for some country that had a problem with the magazine cover".
[21] In late 2018, Netflix faced criticism for its use of stock footage from the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster in multiple original productions, including the series Travelers, and the film Bird Box.
"[44] The makers of the 2019 documentary The Devil Next Door included a map made in 1985 which attempted to show where Nazi death camps stood relative to modern Polish borders.
In response to complaints by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Netflix agreed to insert additional text emphasizing that such camps were in occupied territory.
[45] In December 2019, Netflix announced a special titled The First Temptation of Christ, which depicts Jesus as a homosexual figure who has a relationship with an atheist named Orlando.
[48] In February 2019, Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle brand Goop, which has been criticized for making unsubstantiated claims about the effectiveness of the health treatments and products it promotes, signed a deal to produce a wellness-themed documentary series for Netflix.
[57] Writing for McGill University's Office for Science and Society, Jonathan Jarry argued the show is basically an advertisement for Darin Olien and the pseudoscience he espouses, from cancer-preventing superfoods to self-pasteurized raw goat milk.
[59] The Australian Medical Association (AMA) called on Netflix to remove The Magic Pill from its catalog, a documentary narrated by celebrity chef Pete Evans claiming a ketogenic diet helps cure a variety of diseases, such as asthma and cancer.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas sent a letter to the Department of Justice to "investigate whether Netflix, its executives, or the filmmakers violated any federal laws against the production and distribution of child pornography.
[93] The Jordanian series Jinn was condemned by members of the country's government for alleged "immoral scenes," including showing females without hijabs and young people kissing.
[102] Zahi Hawass, the Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities and Egyptologist, called Netflix's portrayal of Cleopatra "completely fake" and said that the producers are "trying to stir up confusion to spread false information".
[117] In December 2021, former Netflix engineer Sung Mo Jun was sentenced to 2 years in prison for an insider trading scheme where he leaked subscriber numbers in advance of official releases.
[118][119][120] According to a blog post by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Netflix reported its largest ever profit in the US for 2018, but paid nothing in federal or state tax.
While Netflix doesn't have a headquarters in Italy, the prosecution claims that the digital infrastructure such as servers and cables amounts to a physical presence in the country.
Using the capability of the Internet in that fashion was a sensible and efficient way of providing notice, especially compared to the alternative Vogel apparently preferred—mailing out a lengthy legalistic document that few class members would have been able to plow through.
The parties agree that in any such dispute or subsequent legal action, they will only assert claims in an individual (non-class, non-representative) basis, and that they will not seek or agree to serve as a named representative in a class action or seek relief on behalf of those other than themselves.The Netflix website at one time featured a list of titles, "Releasing This Week" (RTW), that enabled customers to easily view new DVDs the company planned for rental release each week.
[149][150][151][152] Netflix grants all employees extremely broad discretion with respect to business decisions, expenses, and vacation—but in return expects consistently high performance, as enforced by what is known as the "keeper test.
[178] Amara operates under DMCA safe-harbor provisions which indemnify it from secondary copyright infringement lawsuits over user-uploaded content, and presumably Netflix would not publish any subtitles produced by this effort without authorization.
[179][180] When confronted, Netflix apologized and promised to remove the unauthorized translations but did not explain how the content came to be offered in the first place, or whether other potentially copyright-infringing subtitles existed.
[179] Netflix has been criticized over the quality of subtitles on some of its content and original productions; the service's video player contains a function allowing users to report issues with captioning.
[187] Since 2020, several studies, organizations and social movements mostly from Europe have protested language discrimination in Netflix's browsing interface, the searching algorithms, and content catalogues.
[195][196][197] A study by the Catalan-language NGO Plataforma per la Llengua had concluded in 2020 that of 2,092 video products surveyed, 327 had already been dubbed in Catalan previously but such versions were not made available by Netflix.
[201] However, the law was criticized for excluding major foreign broadcasters such as Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime or Disney+, meaning only domestic streaming companies were affected by the quota.
[215] In April 2023, Netflix began to occasionally stream live events, beginning with Chris Rock's stand-up comedy special Selective Outrage.
[221] Google initially released plans for a plugin for the Chrome browser and ChromeOS which would allow Netflix streaming, including traditional Linux users.
[222] On August 8, 2013, software repositories were made publicly available making possible the usage of the Windows Silverlight plugin in Linux-native web browsers using Wine.
